Creating Career Paths for UX Professionals

A Little Bit About Me
Manage UX team for Citrix Online, a division of Citrix Systems
UX Designers, Researchers, Tech Writers
Built and managed UX teams for about 5 years
Started out as a UI designer/usability specialist
A short first time manager story…

Six Important Questions
Do I know what is expected of me at work?
Do I have the materials I need to do my work right?
At work, do I have the opportunity to do what I do best every day?
In the last seven days, have I received recognition or praise for doing good work?
Does my supervisor, or someone at work, seem to care about me as a person?
Is there someone at work who encourages my development ?
Source: First Break All the Rules , Marcus Buckingham & Curt Coffman, 1999

Job Descriptions & Career Ladder
Do I know what is expected of me at work?
Do I have the materials I need to do my work right?
At work, do I have the opportunity to do what I do best every day?

Goal Setting, Coaching and Feedback
In the last seven days, have I received recognition or praise for doing good work?
Does my supervisor, or someone at work, seem to care about me as a person?
Is there someone at work who encourages my development ?

Get The Basics Down
Career Ladder & Job Descriptions
Goal Setting & Tracking
Reviews, Coaching & Feedback

Defining Job Families
Who do we have? (Allocation, Skills, Roles, Specialists vs. Generalists)
What do we need? (Identifying Gaps)
What do they have in common? (Grouping)

Multiple Tracks
Differentiate based on main differences/attributes

Define Levels
How many do you need? It depends!

The Five Parts of a Job Description
Title
Duties (Responsibilities, Tasks, Deliverables)
Requirements (Experience, Knowledge, Skills)
Competencies (Behaviors)
Scope of Influence (Supervision, Leadership, Interactions, Decision-making)

Job Description Matrix Less -> More

Scope of Influence
Level of supervision/approval needed
Supervision/direction of others
Interactions with other roles or groups
Discretion: Responsibility for decisions (and effect of mistakes!)

Job Titles -> Scope of Influence*
Principal, Creative Director, Chief, VP, President, CXO, Managing Partner
Manager, Director, Strategist, Architect, Partner
Staff, Senior, Lead, Art Director
Mid-level, Analyst
Associate, Assistant, Junior, Coordinator, Production
*Consider the perceived value of the title and role!

Duties & Requirements
Be as exhaustive as possible!
Brainstorm; involve the entire team
Crib from job postings (but be realistic!)
Look at top performers – what are they doing?
Then differentiate requirements for each level and role

Duties & Requirements
Duties don’t necessarily change – add scope & complexity
Differentiate clearly across levels
Participation in requirements gathering and review sessions .
How might this change based on level?

Competencies
Translate generalities and traits into specifics and behaviors. For example:
“Plays well with others” -> Teamwork
Works in concert with others toward shared goals
Exhibits cooperativeness
Participates in and supports positive conflict resolution
Collaborates cross-functionally
Puts needs of team over personal needs
How might this competency change based on level?

Salary Benchmarking
Compensation surveys (Mellon, Radford)
Industry salary surveys (IA Institute, UPA)*
Public job postings (SimplyHired)
Then define low, mid and high range for each level
*Take with a massive grain of salt when you can’t compare descriptions!

Broadbanding
Broad, overlapping pay scales
Discourages people taking the wrong path for the money – “rewarding in place”
An IA performing excellently is worth more than a manager performing poorly!

Job Descriptions vs. Job Ads
Explaining the job vs. Selling the job
Use the exhaustive description to better understand who you’re looking for
Then: Edit, edit, edit!
Once they start, use the job description, not the ad, to set expectations

Exercise: Job Description Matrix Less -> More

Managing Expectations (on both sides)
What do you do when expectations for title/salary are out of alignment?
Provide a clear path to advancement
Be fair, be consistent.
Don’t be tempted to inflate titles!

Regular Goal Setting
Give them the first shot at it!
Use descriptions/career path as a foundation
Offer objectives, not goals
Define success but let them find their own way
Have regular check-ins

Goal Tracking Document Personal Goals Project/Group Goals Performance Rating/Comments Due Date Goal Description Objectives: Q1 Goals (1/1/08-3/31/08)

Coaching & Goals – Moving Up
Be open to questions, keep open dialogue
Encourage partnerships with senior team members
Find special assignments & research projects
Offer ways of operating cross-functionally
Find opportunities to let them delegate
Provide opportunities to mentor others
Help them understand and work on strategic issues

Coaching & Goals – Barriers
Not asking questions, repeated technical mistakes
Slow skills development, stuck in old methods
Working too much alone
Lack of accountability for problems
Not prioritizing: scattered or always putting out fires
Not delegating enough; overloaded
Overly focused on micro area of interest/expertise

Case Study – Moving Over
“ Peter” – Usability Intern
HF grad student, usability program intern
Interested in IxD
Used job description to identify experience opportunities
Hired F/T as designer after he graduated

Case Study – Moving Up
“Rosie” – Mid-Level IA
Was in the position when I joined
Seemed to be doing a lot more than mid-level work
Annotated job description for the next level up – “checking off” met requirements
Got her into the right position quickly

Case Study – Moving Out
“Nathan” - Junior-level UI designer
Missed meetings, follow-through problems
Sidetracked on random ideas
Set up 30-day Performance Improvement Plan
Quickly showed he wasn’t meeting minimum requirements

Giving Objective Reviews
Use the job description as a benchmark
Point to specific behaviors
Be a mirror, not a judge
Focus on the future
Be supportive
Do it early and often, and do it in writing!

Exercise: Gina
Mid-level User Experience Designer
Very strong performer when working on her own
Has had problems with clients – doesn’t do well negotiating and presenting her ideas
Really really really wants more responsibility and interaction with clients, like running requirements workshops

What’s wrong with this feedback?
“ Gina, you’re a very talented designer but you’re just not good with clients. You can be really stubborn and difficult with design decisions and you need to get over that. I just don’t feel like you’re ready to move up to a client-facing position yet.”
How can we make this actually helpful for her?
Specific examples, mirror behavior, use objective language, focus on the future, be supportive!

Exercise – SMART Goals
Gina’s goals:
Get better at dealing with clients
Learn more about running requirements workshops
How would you help Gina to make her goals:
S pecific (Do we both clearly understand what it is?)
M easurable (How will we know if she was successful?)
A ctionable (How will she do it?)
R ealistic (Will she realistically be able to do it?)
T ime-bound (When will she do it?)

Try it Out!
Use the handouts to get started
Use career pathing framework for your own development as well
Join the UX-Management list at iainstitute.org!
Some good books:
First Break All the Rules: What the World’s Greatest Managers Do Differently - Marcus Buckingham and Curt Coffman
12: The Elements of Great Managing – Rodd Wagner and James Harter

Kristen Johansen
Senior Manager, User Experience
[email_address]
Yahoo! IM: CitrixKristen

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Creating Career Paths for UX Professionals

by Kristen Johansen on Apr 16, 2008

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Creating Career Paths for UX Professionals — Presentation Transcript